In the card game poker, a hand consists of five cards.
In this exercise, cards are represented as two character strings: the first character representing the value of the card and the second representing the suite.
values: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 (10), J (Jack), Q (Queen), K (King), A (Ace). suites: H (Hearts), D (Diamonds), C (Clubs), S (Spades)
For example, '2H' is the two of hearts, '0D' is the 10 of diamonds, 'JC' is the Jack of Clubs.
In this exercise, hands are represented as a string of 5 two character card strings separated by spaces. For example, '2H 2D 2C 2S JD' represents the hand four twos and the jack of diamonds.
These are all of the categories that poker hands can fall into, in order of lowest to highest scoring:
- High Card: Highest value card.
- One Pair: Two cards of the same value.
- Two Pairs: Two different pairs.
- Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same value.
- Straight: All cards are consecutive values.
- Flush: All cards of the same suit.
- Full House: Three of a kind and a pair.
- Four of a Kind: Four cards of the same value.
- Straight Flush: All cards are consecutive values of same suit.
- Royal Flush: Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace, in same suit.
Ace can be high or low but not both.
Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5 is a straight. 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace is a straight. Queen, King, Ace, 2, 3 is NOT a straight.
Hands are invalid if any given hand or combination of given hands could not possibly arise from a standard 52 card deck. For example, if more than 4 aces appear across all hands.
A hand is also invalid if it does not contain exactly five cards.
The task is to create a Poker Hand Evaluator that accepts a list of poker hands (as an array of strings e.g. ['AS', 'KC', '3H', '8C', '5H'] and categorises them into their best scoring category.
Please use whichever testing framework you see fit to ensure that all behaviour is covered.
Your solution will be scored according to whether or not your code works (i.e. passes all tests). If your code passes all tests, general code quality will also be assessed.